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<\/a><\/p>\nA resilient Shelton won three of his six Toronto matches in decisive third-set tiebreakers, including beating compatriot Brandon Nakashima 6-7(8), 6-2, 7-6(5) and fending off Flavio Cobolli 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(1) in a match where, for a brief moment, it looked like the competitors might become combatants and throw hands in the post-match handshake.<\/p>\n
Facing the powerful Khachanov, Shelton played some of his most dynamic tennis in the third-set tiebreaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, really happy. I\u2019m really grateful for the opportunity,\u201d Shelton said. \u201cI feel like it was a perfect storm for me this week. A lot of tight matches, long matches, played some of the best tennis that I\u2019ve played this year. And to finish out the week the way that I did, especially with the opponent that I had today, and the way that he was playing, I couldn\u2019t be happier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rising past Grand Slam king Novak Djokovic to No. 6 in the ATP rankings, Shelton shared the secret of his star-turn performance in Toronto.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the sport\u2019s finest athletes played captive audience before each of his six victories at the National Bank Open.<\/p>\n
Former quarterback Shelton took a page from his football past watching game film of each of his Toronto opponents. Shelton said the video study gave him greater insight into opponents\u2019 tendencies while raising his Tennis IQ<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me it\u2019s being in the later stages of the tournament and playing against guys who are playing their best tennis to see where I match up, and see where my weaknesses are and where I can get better,\u201d Shelton told the media in Toronto. \u201cI think that watching film is a huge piece for me, something that I didn\u2019t do as much in the past, and as of late it\u2019s been kind of an every-match thing for me, at least watching one\u00a0 match or one set start to finish on the guy I\u2019m playing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s an important piece of the game that maybe I overlooked a little bit in the past, or didn\u2019t think was as important, because I was like, I\u2019m going to impose my game on whoever I was playing, but it\u2019s a really important part of the game. I think that my tennis IQ and my tennis mind is something that is getting better, and something that needs to continue to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Australian Open semifinalist created a highlight reel finish in Toronto and is intent on directing another deep run at the US Open later this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that this week kind of kick starts me and gets me more consistent with the type of tennis that I want to play day-in and day-out,\u201d Shelton said. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly going to push me to
work harder. I feel like I have a good grasp now on the things that really work for me against guys who are playing some of the best tennis in the world, and the things that I need to continue to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, August 8, 2025Photo credit: Matthew Calvis Ben Shelton directed a dynamic breakthrough in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-54957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}